Taking the Stage

her. He waited for her to wake at sunset, making love to her as soon as the blood coursed through her veins again. They’d been fortunate this evening that the show seemed nearly complete and Heidi released them all early. Most of the girls escaped into the casino proper to play, but she and Anthony took his cats back to the suite. She lay with her chin tucked against his chest, wrapped around his sleek body, soaking up his heat.

He’d waited. He’d been patient. But her cat was done.

Dammit, he’s not my cat. But no matter how much her mind resisted, it didn’t change what her heart and her soul already embraced—Anthony was hers. She went to Heidi because she worried about this moment—the moment he would push to see the Overseers. When he would interfere in the only bargaining chip she had to protect her sister.

Because if forced to choose—how could she not choose him? “If I asked you to leave it alone, would you?”

“I have left it alone. I’ve left it alone for a week. I share your body and your heart, but not your mind and not your burdens. You keep holding yourself back and…” A growl interrupted the purr vibrating through him and his hands flexed against her. “I want you. All of you. Not just the pieces.”

“It’s my burden, Anthony.” Gods, why couldn’t he understand that? She didn’t want to trap him in this interminable hell with her—even this brief respite—it would end. He would have to leave unless he wanted to negotiate with the—

She refused that thought any more purchase in her mind. She didn’t want the Overseers to get their hands on him. She would kill them all.

The violence burst free of the cocoon of servitude she’d forced herself into. If she could have fought her sister free all those years ago, she would have. She’d adopted the wait and see—the game of service—to stay close to her so that when Cerveau was Jamiela again, they could be free.

But as long as Cerveau existed, her shield-sister would not be free. A warm, callused hand tugged her chin, lifting her from his chest until she was forced to meet his gaze. “Then share the burden of that oath with me. You’re my mate. Your oaths are mine.”

“An oath I made when you were a boy can’t be yours.” She pulled her chin from his hand and pushed up. She could barely think when she touched him.

“Mates, Roseatre.” He pulled her around, refusing to let her retreat and their gazes clashed. “Mates in everything, not just bed, not just a show. Your burdens are my burdens. Would you let me face down my uncle alone?”

“Of course not.” The answer swift and immediate sent a look of satisfaction across his face.

“Then why do you demand that I let you shoulder this alone? I lost my bid to lead when I was not much more than a boy. Arrogance and pride made me walk away from my Pride rather than bend a knee to him that bested me.”

“We’re all subject to the mistakes of our youth…”

“Then you can tell me the truth of why it is you’re here. Why you refuse to remove the slave bands—why you’ve submitted to the control of another, or I’ll get my answers from those you submit to when I challenge them for the life and safety of my mate. I won’t leave you in servitude.”

Challenge.

With that one word, he bashed down the great wall of Troy holding her soul captive. If he challenged the Overseers, he risked his freedom. Worse, he would risk his life.

“Cerveau is the librarian of the tribe. She is bound by debt to serve the Arcana Royale until she surrenders the knowledge she took from their Sphinx.”

Surprise rippled across his features. “How did she…?”

“I don’t know.” Roseatre sighed. Relief at letting it out relaxed her and she settled her body against the long length of him, a masculine cushion to the harsh reality of her condition. She indulged in the way her curves seemed to fit to him, the lazy possessiveness of his leg thrust between hers, the heat of his thigh nestled against her sex.

A week ago, she would have snorted. This moment, she could imagine no other way. Her mother would kill her. But she banished the queen from her thoughts.

“Tell me,” he murmured, stroking his hand through her hair. He was petting her like she was one of his cats and, odder still, she enjoyed the soothing display of ownership.

“Cerveau’s real name is Jaimela.” The answer easier to speak than she imagined. “We were raised together, trained together and in every way, she is my shield-sister. Her shield. My sword. We were inseparable. But at our majority, it was knowledge she longed to conquer, not the battlefield. I didn’t mind the change of direction. In fact, I admired it. She’s the smartest person I’ve ever met. Her mind deciphers puzzles the way Castilian steel severs flesh.”

The story flowed from her easily, bearing no hiccup of shame. That ease, more than any mark his sexy mouth left on her flesh, revealed the imprint their mating left on her soul. A flash of regret died a simple death at the happiness cascading into her heart. She would never be alone again. Her shield-sister and her mate would bracket her, protect her from all sides.

Her mate.

She rubbed her hand against his belly, tracing the ridges of his abdomen. She would mark him here. Where it would be plain to all.

He was hers.

“Ruth?” Her name sounded both delicious and odd on his lips.

“Ruthie,” she whispered. It was an almost shy confession. “That’s what my friends call me.”

“Ruthie.” He tested the syllables. “Ruthie. I like it. Softer. Sexier.”

She laughed. It was hardly a sexy name, except that it turned her inside out when he said it.

“Jaimela loves knowledge,” he prompted.

“Yes. She visited the Oracle at Delphi and spent several nights in the temple of Athena. She told me that the goddess visited her dreams.”

“A rarity in these times.” His understanding unlocked another seal inside her heart. He was quickly nesting himself inside of her, becoming as vital to her existence as air.

“Yes. A great honor. When she came before my mother and begged leave to quest, the court was stunned. No Amazon had been called to quest in five hundred years, since the time my grandmother ruled. It was without question that Jaimela would be granted the leave to go.”

“And you took the oath to go with her. To protect her on her quest.” Of course he understood.

Gods, she loved him.

She loved him.

“Yes.” The emotion rolled through her, a pervasive wind that shattered what remained of the wall. “Her quest took us around the world. We visited temples throughout Asia Minor, the Pacific and deep into South America. We watched the sun climb the sides of Machu Pichu and the moon achieve her zenith over the lost jaguar temples of the Maya. But we pushed on, forever roaming, as Athena’s messages arrived in the form of owls.”

“Until you arrived here.”

“Yes.” Roseatre dropped her head to lie against his chest, the thump of his heart beating in her ear a sweet reminder of shared passion. Her heart echoed the cadence of his. He was everywhere inside of her, she could almost feel the sprout of his fur, caressing her, comforting her.

“What happened when you arrived at the Arcana Royale?”

“I don’t know.” The confession hurt, but truth often did. “We walked inside the lobby. Jaimela practically bounced with excitement. She kept murmuring ‘it’s here, it’s here’ and then she just went still. Her eyes glazed. Her mouth slackened and nothing I did could rouse her.”

Her throat clogged with remembered frustration, anger and even a tinge of fear. She’d been faced by nothing to battle, nothing to strike down, only the empty eyed face of her sister. Helpless.

Anthony’s arms caged her, his hands stroking and petting. Tears slid down her face in earnest. The loss as poignant now as it had been then. “The Overseers summoned me before them. Jaimela had broken a covenant, stolen knowledge, and by the laws that govern this place, she would serve until she surrendered what she had taken, returned it to its rightful place.”

“Why doesn’t she just do it then?” It wasn’t callousness or anger in his tone, but true question.